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Notable quotable

Posted by David Roberts at 12:07 AM on 16 Dec 2007

"We seek your leadership. But if for some reason you are not willing to lead, leave it to the rest of us. Please get out of the way."

-- Kevin Conrad, U.N. delegate from Papua New Guinea, during contentious last-minute climate talks in Bali. Conrad's blunt declaration was met with applause.

Bravo, Kevin Conrad, for standing up..............

............. and speaking out so loudly and clearly. We, the people, have got do this one thing, I suppose, and do it now because time is of the essence.

Sad to say, the leadership offered to the world by the most rich and powerful nation has been as poor as any I can remember ever learning about in the course of my lifetime.  Never have I been so disappointed in the behavior of a tiny number of people exercising power.

At least to me, nowhere in the course of human events can I find an example where so few people from one nation, with positions of power -- with actual responsibilities to assume and duties to perform in behalf of the family of humanity -- consciously made decisions that could prove to be so deleterious and potentially ruinous of the lives of so many children worldwide.  And for what?

Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population
http://sustainabilitysoutheast.org/

US leadership in Bali appears to have been........

........full of ideological intensity as well as devoid of humanitarian values and honorable conviction.

These intransigent leaders at the Climate Change Conference evidently became so isolated from the family of humanity at the end of the last day of meetings that their unilateral, morally offensive "rear-guard action" in defense of selfish, irresponsible national aims crumbled, as is common with such unsavory efforts.  

Yeats said it best

"The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity."  

Kudos to Papua for calling us out.

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